By Amanda May

Lindenwood’s Senior Professor of Art and Design John Troy will be featured in his fourth exhibition this year. He will have two paintings, titled “2137” and “Hartley,”  featured in the Manifest Gallery’s HOMAGE  exhibition in Cincinnati. The exhibit received 273 submissions from 87 artists before narrowing it down to 14 pieces by nine artists; only three of the artists, including Professor Troy, had more than one piece accepted. 

“The Manifest Gallery is a very selective not-for-profit, academic-supported institution,” Professor Troy said. “Their jurying process is multi-layered and includes renowned experts in all art fields. I have shown in one other Manifest exhibition, ‘The Nude’ in 2016, and been rejected a couple times since. There was certainly no guarantee of acceptance this time. It is a prestigious award and my work will reach a much larger audience because of it…. The HOMAGE  exhibition is designed around painters who pay homage to other artists, historic or contemporary, who have inspired them. Alice Neel and I share little in our aesthetic sensibilities, but she has always been an inspiration, nonetheless, because of the depth of character she finds in her subjects, her expressive use of color, and her bohemian survivor lifestyle. I appropriated her subject and composition as a homage in my ‘Hartley’ painting. As a realist, I'm a huge fan of Robert Bechtle, a contemporary realist who was an instrumental founder of the Photorealist movement in the late 1960's. My painting, ‘2137,’  is inspired partly by Bechtle's obsession with southern California light and culture.”

Professor Troy has been featured in three other galleries this year, a feat he says he hasn’t matched since 1982. In August, he was featured in The Jones Gallery in Kansas City for the month of August, and in September and October,  he had art featured in the Real People 2020  exhibition at the Old Courthouse Art Centre in Woodstock, Illinois, for which he won third place. He is currently being showcased at the exhibition at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. “Each exhibition selected a different painting of mine for inclusion-- so there are no repeats.”

Professor Troy has been teaching at Lindenwood for 19 years; he also  tries to produce two or three paintings a year, each  painting takes around four to six months to complete. He completed “Hartley”  and “2137” within the past couple of years. He said he felt compelled to submit to galleries after dealing with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

“In the spring of 2020, I was suffering, along with most, from coronavirus malaise; the inability to get motivated and excited about anything,” Professor Troy said. “Finally, in late May, I decided I had to press forward and affect some positive change, so I researched exhibition opportunities and applied to the four exhibitions. Luckily, I was accepted to them all and I have a renewed excitement in my profession.”

Professor Troy’s biggest piece of advice for aspiring professional artists is “apply to exhibitions as often as you can. Get your work seen by as many people as possible. Be prepared for a lot of rejection but keep producing and keep applying.” 

The HOMAGE  exhibition opens on December 11. Artists and major benefactors will be on site (following health safety protocols),  and the public can join virtually. They will do a Zoom Artists' Talk on January 7, 2021 from 6-8 p.m. EST (5-7 p.m. CST).

Congratulations to Professor John Troy on his fourth exhibition this year!